


A Slight Misstep

by Left_In_The_Wreckage



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bill is a demon, BillDip, But it's there, Fluff, M/M, No specific au, Protective Bill, a slim mention of soulmates/ soulbond, dipper dies, immortal dipper, kinda sad, non-canon universe, technically, the boys technically aren't together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 14:03:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14812767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Left_In_The_Wreckage/pseuds/Left_In_The_Wreckage
Summary: Dipper takes a fall and confronts Bill about his newfound immortality, but Bill's the one that takes it the hardest.The fic in which the two acknowledge things said and unsaid.





	A Slight Misstep

Bill met him at the door. 

Dipper was soaked through with rain and his clothes were in literal tatters. Taking in his appearance, the demon sucked in a breath, his concern and muted surprise evident the longer he stared.  Dipper had worked himself up to confronting Bill about what had happened or rather… what hadn’t happened, but he couldn’t find his voice as he looked up at the demon that couldn’t presently keep his emotions in check with his usually smooth expression. He couldn’t help but notice the creases around his eyes. Beyond the porch light, the rain continued to fall, its rhythm disturbing what would have been utter silence between them.

_I know, Bill. I know what you did,_  he would have said, if he hadn’t felt like seeking comfort then, and easing the strain clearly splayed across the Cipher’s features.

 It felt wrong to say anything in that moment, to acknowledge the openness in Bills eyes, but nothing could have stop him from observing this weakness. It was too late to pretend he hadn’t as it was. He just wasn’t sure what answers it gave him then. 

Cipher made to speak, but the words must have died on his lips because he moved out of the doorway instead, allowing Dipper to walk in. His eyes grazed the floor before following his progress to the hearth’s loveseat. Bill must have needed his own time to think, as the fireplace was lit. Fire, he’d told Dipper once, always helped him to think, but it sometimes backfired and all he did was dwell on old regrets.

The demon cleared his throat, finally, and spoke hesitantly, “Something on your mind?” Bill internally cringed at his own dense question. _Of course_ there was something bothering Dipper. Something that had to do with him, he was afraid he already knew what it was. He wasn’t stupid, he knew without reaching out to the man’s mind that he’d discovered something he shouldn’t have. Not so soon. But what could he say in the face of that? None of the old tactics would work here. He’d never apologized then, never had to make up for mistakes made when it was just himself. 

Bill considered the state of the brunette’s clothes as well as the man himself. He seemed to be fine. He didn’t notice any limping, or massive tears, just… wear and tear. Bill wished it was enough to convince him the already fragile peace between them hadn’t shattered once again. It wasn’t.

Dipper was quiet as Bill watched him nervously, trying to appear calm and collected as he wracked his infinite knowledge for anything, everything that would be of use in circumstances he didn’t understand. _An_ _d after all that progress, we’re in the same place we began._

He didn’t read the Pine’s mind, much less his surface thoughts, blocking them out with his own. He couldn't afford a slip up now and that was always a touchy subject with his pinetree.

“When… when were you going ot tell me?” 

 Dipper’s voice was hoarse where it hadn’t been that afternoon. Bill might have stored this information away as a clue, if it hadn’t gotten the better of him. 

 So he was already being accused? He supposed it made sense, most things he did had that special _Bill Cipher_ signature to them that made it obvious whether or not it was a Cipher original. It just wasn't fair that Dipper had skipped out of explaining what he’d done this time. What he’d discovered this time. The demon wanted to point this disadvantage on his part out, but now clearly wasn’t the time. He had _some_  tact after all. 

“I can’t know what you’re asking of me unless you give me more to work with.” He bit out instead, staring at the lit fireplace. 

  This seemed to rouse something bitter and angry within the man, who straitened his spine in response,  “You’re a mind reader Bill! Figure it out!”

  The fire too, seemed to echo his frustration, rising to a new height and licking at the logs with fervor they hadn’t till then, before dying down once more. His Pine tree could be so unfair. “I didn’t think you _wanted_ me in your mind. You said it was because you couldn’t trust me not to spy,” Bill said pointedly, there was no real malice in his words, but he’d rather the other think him angry than _hurt_  by the fact. It’s not like there was anything special about Dippers mind… nothing at all and the significance of being kicked out was certainly nothing to gawk over.

  The glow illuminated Pine tree in the corner of his eye. The orange glow was warm and inviting. It was a comfort that didn’t match the air of the room. A flick of his fingers tinged the flames blue instead, covering them both in its eery light. It was a mistake, blue had always been Dipper’s color as it had been his… he felt a pang in his chest better examined later when he knew whether or not to entertain it, or cut it out as if it had never been, the fleshy, beating organ there. Some pains weren’t worth pursuing in the end. 

  Dipper wanted to say he could now, he really did, but he wasn’t sure it was the best time. Even if it made things easier for the both of them to get over this hurdle. He just… he wanted to be certain about it. No amount of convenience was going to change that fact.

  He couldn’t expect Bill to understand him when he still wasn’t quite used to the handicap he placed on him in concerns to well, himself, Dipper thought, sighing. Frankness would have to do the trick then. “I know I’ve been made immortal, Bill.”

  Nothing. 

  The other sat there, still as a statue and that scared Dipper more than the reluctance he’d answered him with before.

 The pattern they’d been falling into, dodging each other’s unasked questions and letting quiet reign over them, was getting old and Dipper couldn’t take it anymore. He was determined to make sure they didn’t circle back to that again. 

 Not when they’d been making progress. “Bill, look at me…” he paused before uttering a word he knew from experience the demon wouldn’t ignore if it was him. “ _Please,_  please look at me.”

This earned him Bill’s full attention. It wasn’t immediate, but it was something. For the first time since meeting him at the door, he’s meeting Dipper’s stare full on. It’s… somewhat unnerving. Silence once again threatens to consume them when Dipper rephrases his statement.

“Since when have I been an immortal, Bill?”

This time, his answer came with no hesitance and he knew Bill was tired of dancing around him as well, that he was telling the truth. “Ever since I realized your soul was tied to mine,” Bill replies seriously. His eyes narrow as he surveys the damage done to the man’s shirt openly now. Distaste, anger, concern, he could see it all reflected there despite the way they darkened. 

“What _exactly_  gave it away?” he asked, his eyes glowing faintly, noticeable despite the blue flames bathing the room in its familiar hue.

Understanding dawns on Dipper and not for the first time he considers that he could have _died_ that night. “I… I fell…”

“You… fell,” Bill echoed, bemused, clearly expecting specifics.

“Yes. I fell. I lost my footing around the cliffs and…” He found himself trailing off, his throat closing up and his eyes burning at the still fresh memory. Bill says nothing, patiently waiting for him to feel ready to talk when what he really wanted to do was hold him close and coo in his ear until everything was okay. Until they were okay. But he didn’t. Not trusting himself to be able to stop his own emotions from overflowing, and unsure of how it would be received by the other. He clutched the arm rests of the armchair instead and waited.

Dipper didn’t continue however, and instead, finished his explanation by unzipping his hoodie to reveal a giant hole in his shirt right where his abdomen was.

Bill’s eyes widened and in just a two strides he mad his way over to the brunette, a hand reaching out to survey the damage despite knowing full well there wouldn't be any. That there shouldn’t be any. He still felt a wave of relief, feeling the smooth skin there. 

“The ground reached up to meet you, impaling you just short of your chest cavity and you thought you were going to die?” He finished for the other, starting out wavering, before his voice became impersonal and cold. It was like he was stating something that was merely a fact and was only mildly inconvenienced by it. The red glow of his eye said otherwise. 

Dipper gulps, suddenly feeling like he’s the one being interrogated.  

“Yes,” he says cautiously.

“Why couldn’t you just be a little more careless?” Bill murmured sarcastically, resting his head on Dipper’s shoulder, hiding his face in the crook of his partner’s neck.

“I-” 

Bill cut him off with a low growl. “You- Dipper Pines, do you have any idea what I would have done if that had actually killed you like it very well should have? So tell me, what /did/ you come here to ask me, Dipper? Why I would do this without your consent, with full knowledge that you would refuse? Because _this_ ,  _today_ , is a testament as to why.” he says gesturing to Dipper’s chest.

“I-I’m sorry. I… just why wouldn't you tell me? Afterward, I mean.”

“Better that you were unaware at all and none the wiser. I made it as unnoticeable and undetectable as possible below the surface. Only deathblows and serious damage would heal so I wouldn’t have to worry whenever you decided to go off by yourself, so I wouldn’t have to see you in pain…. So I never have to watch you die, Pines. It’s the only way I knew to guarantee your safety… and you’d never even have to know it, but then you just had to go and do something _stupid_  and get yourself impaled on a _rock_.”

This time, there’s understanding in the silence as they both settle into processing the implications of this conversation.

Bill is the first to pipe up a choked, “I won’t remove it.” He glares pitifully up at Dipper as he kneels, his arms encircling his waist. “no matter how many times you ask me to. I won’t watch you die. Won’t let you convince me to-” he cuts himself off, tears filling his eyes he’s unable to cover as anything else. They spill over his cheeks and he whimpers. “Not again.”

Dipper pauses at this. It’s not the first time Bill has mentioned there being some past he can’t remember, he supposed it came with the territory of what they were. After all, soulbonds don’t just form out of nowhere and nothing, and Dipper knew he’d never formed one with Bill Cipher in his life. This life.

Maybe another, if there were such a thing as reincarnation. Bill seemed to think so, but he still couldnt wrap his head around that fact. 

It was one of the few things he gathered from Bill that he stored away for safekeeping and analyzing later, or not at all in some cases. Secrets he shouldn’t know but through Bill, knew anyway and wasn’t sure how to deal with them. _Reality is an illusion_ being one of them.

He took it in stride, though as he always did, and moved his hand to card through Bill’s hair, soft and bright and blue because of the fire still ablaze off to the side. 

Bill leaned into the affection, willing to ignore the fact that there was more that needed to be said, content as he was to just know Dipper wasn’t angry with him and that he’d protected him, that he’d done a good thing and Dipper was still warm and breathing. 

“Bill, I won’t ask you to reverse what you did, but… tell me next time. I deserve to know when you do things like this on my behalf.”

“You’ll never ask me to remove it or try to force my hand to do so?” Bill inquired, raising his head to look up at the man he adored, not sure if he could believe it.

“Never.” Dipper said this with the same conviction the demon had come to love.

Bill’s eyes shone and he was tempted to make this into a deal, but repressed the urge. He did however, take Dipper’s hands and looked him in the eye. The brunette slowly nodded when he understood what Bill wanted, leaving his mind open to him for the first time in weeks. Bill tested this, gently pushing forward until he could sense the sincerity in Dipper’s words as they were repeated.

Bill sighed a little sadly as he retreated from Dipper’s mind, before he felt more than heard the man’s plea for him to stay.

A memory caught his attention as it was pushed to the forefront of Dipper’s mind. 

It was a new one, and he instantly knew what he was looking at was Dipper’s fall.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to see it, but Dipper wanted him to, so he wouldn’t refuse. This was the first in too long that he’d opened himself up and the first Bill was able to see things through Dipper’s eyes. 

He wasn’t prepared.

Nothing could have prepared him for the pain that Dipper had endured for what must have felt like hours as he was unable to pull himself up and when he did only served to make things worse.

But he endured, and so did Bill. 

He felt him falling through the air, surprise, shock and fear consuming his mind when the ground beneath his crumbled and he landed on his back. With a clear view of the cloud filled sky, where he’d fallen from and the pointed rock formation that had pierced through him and no doubt should have killed him.

There was shock yes, and pain, but after that was despair.

He hadn’t thought of his sister for once, though Bill wouldn’t have blamed him…. he’d thought of the demon that he was bound to and in turn, bound to him.

He’d thought of his too large grins and his intelligent eyes. He’d thought of his jokes and his antics… he’d thought of how much this would hurt him.

He’d thought he was dying when the pain began to fade, before realizing that something was amiss.

He wasn’t dying. He was healing. as best he could at least considering. 

And he’d been relieved.

Bill left the memory and Dipper’s mind slowly, resting his forehead on said individual’s own. His eyes were full of so much gratitude Bill’s breath hitched. 

“I couldn’t have asked for anyone better…. thank you. so, so much.”

It was all Bill had wanted to hear, and at the same time it wasn’t. But he understood that the words were there, even if the human didn’t realize it, dense as he was and still dazed by what he’d gone through.

_ I love you _

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired in part by Conspiratheory  
> I wrote this the day I finished reading it and then procrastinated posting it and changing things so here it is!  
> I feel like there could have been or should have been more to it... but this is what I've got. I might expand on it, but as a separate fic with a few au tags.


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